Ryan Schmitz

Rhetoric undergoes some major changes from the time of its born as an art in ancient Greece to the time it is expanded and further developed within Christian Europe. Dating back to the ancient Greeks, rhetoric was debated not only on meaning, but also on what it should be applied to. Plato and Aristotle took separate stands on whether rhetoric should be considered an area of expertise, let alone an art of its own. Later on, during the Roman Empire rule in Europe, Cicero and Quintilian debate again the true meaning of rhetoric and how it should be used, or not used. They agree on the use and perfection of rhetoric in the courts, however, they disagree on vital points about how rhetoric should stand morally and how epideictic oration should be delivered. (Who, what, when, and where… and why). For example somebody should be praised for a selfless act, as long as it is the right timing, for instance in court, and the person should be praised as long as they did the good deed without expecting anything in return. As far as history can place rhetoric, it has been debated what the true meaning or definition is. Personally I have studied more of ancient Greek’s use of rhetoric, therefore, pulling me to appreciate the Greeks definitions and uses of rhetoric.

1. I learned that rhetoric can be extremely complicated to understand at first. However, after reading a little bit of Lawrence Prelli’s “Rhetoric of Display,” I was able to grasp a better understanding needed to write my essay, and I was able to understand how rhetoric works in real world applications also.
2. The exam allowed me to be aware of the necessary terms that are needed to be able to navigate the given works of rhetoric. Also the exam helped to cement the people we’ve been learning about in class, because we had to know more detailed information on them for the test.

Cultural Research Paper (ERH)-252po9z

Ryan Schmitz